More than 71 million EU citizens at risk of poverty. Among them those living in Calabria, Sicily, and Campania

Brussels – In 2023, according to Eurostat data, the European Union Statistics Agency, 16.2 per cent of the EU population was at risk of poverty. Among the highest shares, apart from French Guiana, with more than 50 per cent of the population at risk, are the Italian regions Calabria, Sicily, and Campania, with rates of 40.6, 38 and 36.1 per cent, respectively.

Approximately 71.7 million people came close to the poverty indicator based on national poverty thresholds. These percentages identify the amount compared to the total number of people with a disposable income below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, which is 60 per cent of the national median income after social transfers. Basically, it compares low-income people against other people in the country without directly considering wealth or poverty. Data compared to 2022 show differences in growth and decline, which are independent for each region but which, overall, confirm the differences recorded even in 2023.

At the regional level, including the three mentioned earlier, ten regions in the EU had a share of people at risk of poverty above 30 per cent. In contrast, 26 regions recorded shares below 10 per cent. The Romanian region of Bucureşti-Ilfov recorded the lowest rates of people at risk of poverty (2.1 per cent), ahead of the Italian region Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen (3.1 per cent) and the Belgian region Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen (5.4 per cent).

In a multidimensional approach, in which three dimensions are analysed, data on people at risk of poverty or social exclusion can be considered. The first dimension concerns the risk of poverty: the availability of 60 per cent of the national median disposable income, excluding social transfers. The second condition includes people who cannot afford seven of the 13 items considered desirable or necessary to live adequately, living in severe material and social deprivation. The last focuses on work, identifying people under age 65 who live in a very low work-intensive household, with adults who worked for 20 per cent or less of their potential in the previous year.

With this indicator, the percentage of people in the EU rises to 21.4 per cent, from over 70 million to over 94 million. The 5.5 million people who faced all three dimensions simultaneously—being at risk of poverty, in severe social or material deprivation and very low work intensity—are alarming.

The distribution, again, was uneven around the EU average, with about two-fifths of all regions in the EU reporting equal or higher levels. Concerning poverty risk alone, when studying the three aspects that also include social exclusion, the figures are much less encouraging, falling from 26 regions to 5 with figures below 10 per cent of people at risk.

At least 35 per cent of the people in 19 EU regions are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Most of these regions are in Bulgaria, southwestern Greece, southern Spain, the outermost regions of France (2022 data), southern Italy, or eastern and southern Romania. 

For Italy, the percentages change, but the regions with the lowest risk are the Autonomous Province of Bolzano along with Emilia Romagna, while at the bottom are Sicily (41.4 per cent), Campania (44.4 per cent) and, at the tail end, Calabria (48.6 per cent)—alarming data which confirm Italy as one of the European countries with the greatest inequality in income distribution.